Part 2: 20th May 2010 : Posted by Miles Ruffcutter (Mechanical Engineer @ MowForBritain)
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Part 1: 17th May 2010 : Posted by Miles Ruffcutter (Mechanical Engineer @ MowForBritain)
Having read my RuffCutter blog last week, Rob contacted me to see if I could do a cost effective restoration of his field find MTD Cub Cadet. Well I love a challenge so here is the machine in its post clean state.
Now I know this is boring and mostly unneccesary but having had every near death and near finger amputation experience with mowers one would wish to have, you can and will have great and satisfying fun following some of the steps below but please take off both the spark plug caps before you do any work on the machine, and finally if you are working under the tractor, proping it up in both directions is essential. If you are unsure about anything give me a call anytime.
Rob had already cleaned up the machine and his mate had cleaned the carb but the engine still didn't run. The machine had been living in a field under a hedge of a rather posh woman for most of it's life so cleaning out the fuel system and filter are a must as petrol get's stale very easily, the picture below shows the new fuel lines and filter I put on after draining and cleaning the tank.
The engine fired after thirty seconds. It hunts a little bit at mid range which isn't uncommon for this type of engine but the true test will be when the machine is under full power and cutting heavy grass, which I hope won't be too far away.
Now the engine is working and I've tentatively tested the hydrostatic drive (it's running on one front rim at the mo) which works in both directons but doesn't seem to stop very well which nearly took out my welding rig in reverse so needs attention here, time to tackle the next most important thing, the deck.
Time to tackle the next most important thing, the deck ………
The picture below shows the underside of the cutter deck unit. Typically for a steel deck there is rust underneath and on top rust on the moving parts dictates that it needs a full strip down. The grease ports are also rusted over so there is no guarantee the recommended service as per the manual will be sufficient. As the son of a Lackham Agricultural Engineer I am constantly reminded by my father that grass is extremely corrosive. Over the next week you'll see what I do to rectify this particular problem and hopefully stop any further corrosion over the next few years.
Finally for today, I'll prepare the blades to be removed. The first of the two pictures shows a rather rusted bolt, the second shows the bolt after some attention with a wire brush. It's really important to clean off these bolts nicely before removing the blades as it's easy to select the wrong socket which will round off the nut when high pressure is applied which will cause all sorts of issues and expense later.
The three blades are clearly the originals and the retaining bolts are holding themselves in there like a Lib Dem MP with a policy, it's going to take a breaker bar and a red face to remove them so need to call on the help of Big Tom and his UniMog tools for that one!
